Title: Torque
Author: Charley Descoteaux
Length: 144 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Publication Date: February 23, 2016
Categories: Bisexual, trans, poly (MMF)
Sometimes letting things get complicated is the best way to figure it all out.
Mick Randall is on the run, from the biker culture he grew up in and his impossible vision of love. Alaska should be far enough to escape his old life—until he rolls into a wrecking yard and gets lost in a pair of pale, bottle-green eyes.
Scotty Bell has spent years learning to channel his fiery temper into the heat of a welding torch. His sexual heat has always been slower to ignite, but one look at Mick rouses confusion alongside desire. In all his life, he’s only been attracted to one other person—his best friend, Mercy Taylor.
Mick lands a temporary job at the yard, and finds an uneasy crash pad at Scotty’s place…where the ragged ends of his emotions get tangled up in Scotty and Mercy’s relationship.
But when Mick hears a Harley engine from his past bearing down on him, his first instinct is to go back to the half-life he’d been living. Lest his secrets destroy the only two people who’ve ever made him feel whole.
Warning: Contains references to abuse, subversive ideas about sexual identity and gender expression, and a free-range bisexual on a mission.
I freely admit I didn’t want to read this one at first. The option to review crossed my email in the spring during a book tour, and I felt like I was not in a frame of mind to add it even though the blurb intrigued me. After reading some of the author’s other work, I decided to check it out. I’m so glad I did.
Mick is troubled by his bisexuality—to the point he doesn’t even know there’s a word for his feelings until Mercy explains. Scotty has a difficult history and wars within himself between knowing he’s enough and not being quite sure. Mercy is my favorite of all, even though we never see in her point of view (I really wish we did). She’s beautiful and wonderful and holds everything together even though she has problems of her own.
There’s a grittiness to this which didn’t follow exactly what I was expecting. These characters are emotionally raw, if not always with each other, and their lives are not pretty. Out of necessity, they’re forming a family of their own, and it’s painful and beautiful they way they connect. When Mick, Mercy, and Scotty finally work out how much they need each other, all the layers are peeled back to expose their feelings. This is my favorite line in the whole thing:
“It wasn’t because we don’t belong together, I get that now. It’s because we were missing you.” (Scotty to Mick, on sealing their relationship with Mercy)
The one thing which bothered me was how unsure I felt about Scotty and his attitude toward Mercy. He doesn’t ever misgender her or overtly act as though he doesn’t see her as a woman, but he does these weird, subtle things like talking about how grossed out he is by vaginas. It undermines some of his other actions and words. It’s not frequent, and it’s possibly the sort of thing no one else would be bothered by, but it did make me hesitate.
On the whole, I really liked this story. It’s fast-paced, which means we have to read between the lines at times with regard to the relationship. There’s also a bit of telling vs. showing, which in this case I think is partly because of the unusual nature of the romance. For example, when Mercy explains that Scotty is asexual, that reads as being as much for audience benefit as for Mick. Otherwise, it’s really well-written with a lot of sensitivity toward the characters and situations.
This is a book definitely geared toward people who are sick of reading the same or very similar plots involving diverse gender and sexual expression. It’s not for people who are just looking for transgender tropes or hot menage erotica. In my opinion, we could use a lot fewer of those and a lot more books like this one.
For characters to fall in love with, realistic emotions, and an out-of-the-box happily every after, this gets 9/10 fountain pens.
Insert Fountain Pen rating here.
Heat rating: 4/5 ink wells (explicit/frequent sexual situations)
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Torque-Charley-Descoteaux-ebook/dp/B016XTORUK/
Charley Descoteaux has always heard voices. She was relieved to learn they were fictional characters, and started writing when they insisted daydreaming just wasn’t good enough. In exchange, they’ve agreed to let her sleep once in a while. Charley grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during a drought, and found her true home in the soggy Pacific Northwest. She has survived earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, but couldn’t make it through a single day without stories.
During the week Charley works in a cube in corporate-landia and takes every chance to trade business casual for jeans days. On the weekends you can find her writing, knitting, hanging out online, or volunteering.
